Authorities grapple with ways to “sex” up agriculture

Oct 05, 2010 News

…brain drain hurting sector badly, farmers getting old

Guyana is suffering a serious problem of “brain drain” with specialists in the agricultural sector and the shortage is in a sore need to be gapped in hurry.
This was the grim message to scores of students who gathered yesterday at the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA), Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, to hear about possible careers in the agriculture field.
Several companies as well as agencies of the Ministry also made presentations of the fields that are high in demand—companies like Geddes Grant, Ainlim, Caribbean Chemicals Guyana Limited and the Guyana Sugar Corporation.

Scores of students contemplate a career in agriculture at the Guyana School of Agriculture yesterday.

The career day activities are part of the government’s celebrations of Agriculture Month 2010.
According to Dindyal Permaul, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, the pursuit of science subjects and Math and English which are critical to the curriculum, does not limit students to just the agriculture sector since the field is very wide.
With the many courses available leading up to the University of Guyana level, students have the very real choice of either being employees…or employers.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, noted that Guyana was built on farming background with agriculture being the fastest growing sector now.
With very significant input to the country’s gross domestic product, the very success of the students depends heavily on the continued growth of the agriculture sector.
It is against this background that there should be a total revolution of the sector with the traditional approach outdated to meet national and international demands.
Explaining, Persaud drew reference to the fact that Guyana has lost a significant percentage of its preferential market and this year for the first time had to compete with other international players.
The Minister stressed that the industry needs new blood but the reality is that not many are interested in this field.
Acknowledging the challenges to the agricultural sector including markets and the weather factor, the official warned that the continued perception of farming is for people with little education is totally misplaced.
He repeated earlier calls for the need to make the country’s agriculture sector more “sexy”, explaining that it simply means that ways must be found to make it more attractive.
The reality is that agricultural specialists are short in Guyana with experts in many instances have to be imported from places like Cuba, India and China.
According to Minister Persaud, this was true in the recent case of the lab being built where Guyana simply does not have the skills necessary to man it.
Already a team of agriculture workers has been attached with the Ministry of Education to explore ways to improve the system and there are moves to link the GSA and the University of Guyana to ensure that the programmes are in sync and there are no duplications.
What is more worrying in the area of farming is that the average age is just over 50 years and there seems to be no hurry for the younger generation to step up to the plate.
Persaud painted a picture of urgency for GuySuCo.
While in the past the Corporation had over 1000 days to conduct its operations this has been slashed by more than half the amount due to several constraints. But to counter the opportunity days, the Corporation has moved to full mechanisation and using its Bell Loaders and even resorting to using bright lights in the night to ensure that work is done.
He noted that there is a need for a new attitude to not only agriculture but on the way forward on for Guyana.
Entertaining questions from the students, the Minister noted that because of the importance of agriculture to Guyana, the curriculum of schools may need to be reviewed to even making it a more integral part of lessons.
Also making presentations to the students were representatives of the University of Guyana.
The brain drain issue of losing key skills to private sector and migration is nothing new.
Recently, GuySuCo has said that despite spending millions to train apprentices, only about 20 per cent of them remain with the government-owned entity after serving their mandatory time.